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Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Tokyo Bird, Surry Hills and an FB&S announcement

First, apologies for the prolonged quietness. It has been, and will no doubt continue to be, a very busy year for me and as such, this is the last blog post you'll see on Food, Booze & Shoes for a while. The reason?

Small bar Tokyo Bird opened in a quiet Surry Hills laneway in late December 2014 with my partner Jason at the helm and a small crew that includes, on some nights, me. That's right, Food, Booze & Shoes is transitioning to something more like Booze, Booze and some Food.

Tokyo Bird, Belmore Lane, Surry Hills

Tokyo Bird is the realisation of a long-held aspiration for us, especially Jason who's been shaking Boston tins for at least the last 12 years.

While we've been hit with all manner of delays over the past 12 months or so, we're proud to finally be open on the unbeaten, footpath-less Belmore Lane in Surry Hills, right behind Brooklyn Hide and around the corner from Bodega and the Keg & Brew pub.

The bar at Tokyo BirdPhoto by George Hong

Our concept brings together Tokyo's refined cocktail bars with the Japanese 'salaryman' favourite of a yakitori-ya, in a very Sydney incarnation of a laneway small bar.

With an intimate space licensed to hold 60 patrons, it really is a place that we would want to hang out in for chilled drinks – whether it's beer, our award-winning bartender Yoshi Onishi's house cocktails, sake or an introduction to Japanese whisky.

Snacks and yakitori at Tokyo BirdPhoto by George Hong

On the food side, particularly having determined that I'm most definitely an eater after a few drinks, we've got a selection of nibbles and yakitori grilled skewers for some pretty decent drinking food.

It's been six great years of Food, Booze & Shoes with more than 700 posts published on Sydney restaurants, bars, events and festivals. But it it feels like the time is right to put the blog to rest for now as the food blogging community continues to evolve and change, and my own spare time and resources have all but disappeared.

Personally, it's been six wonderful years of eating, drinking, getting around town and connecting with very like-minded individuals. It's also been six long years of photo selection and editing, late nights writing and trying to remember what something I ate weeks ago tasted like - these parts I won't miss so much.

Heartfelt thanks go to my contributors - Hendy, Janice, Kath & Mark - for their efforts over the past year or so - it's been so great to share the blog with you and in return, experience your perspectives and passion for all things food and booze. Many hugs to the other bloggers (and no-longer bloggers) out there who I can happily call friends - I won't be seeing you at events and picnics any longer, but Tokyo Bird hopes to see you soon!

So while you won't find me here much any more, you will certainly be able to find me at Belmore Lane in Surry Hills, or on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter – and even on our own blog from time to time.

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